130 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



industrial, political, warlike, or other operations, ever 

 find that the men of skill, industry, and entire trust- 

 worthiness — of whom they can dispose, either in the 

 highest or the lowest departments — are superabundant. 

 Every master knows that good men — and every man 

 that good masters — are scarce. 



" The idle who will not work, the unskilful who 

 cannot work, and the criminal classes who cannot be 

 trusted, are, however, it may be admitted, whether 

 numerous or few, always redundant." 



When, from time to time, the trade of the country 

 does not show the elasticity to which we have become 

 accustomed, and the national wealth does not grow fast 

 enough to satisfy those in a hurry to be rich ; when 

 from one side politicians proclaim that the lesser income 

 of the incompetent should be raised at the expense 

 of those by whose superior ability they are virtually 

 supported, and from the other that wealth can be 

 increased by erecting tariff walls to check its free 

 circulation, it would be well for the leaders who are 

 responsible for manipulating public opinion to study the 

 innate composition of the people, and the relative rate 

 of reproduction in all ranks of life of the able classes, 

 who alone are of much economic value in the com- 

 munity. 



Doubtless, the incidence of taxation can hamper to 

 a greater or less extent the growth of wealth and affect 

 its distribution. But the essential factor in the rise 

 and fall of nations is the quality of their people. If 

 politicians and economists be dissatisfied with the 

 relative growth of British trade, or with the relative 

 position of the country among the nations of the world, 



